Pop Pop

My grandfather had a heart attack and has been in a hospital bed since. He’s near the end now and soon he’ll be home, with his parents and friends that’ve passed in his lifetime. I stood around in a circle with my family today who came from everywhere dropping their lives for what could have been their last hours with Pop Pop.

My family is single-handedly the best family someone could ever want to be a part of. When we’re all together no matter what’s going on its a support system that works effortlessly and perfectly.

When Pop Pop leaves us he won’t ever be gone. Everyone will be taking something with them that they’ve had all along. See, Pop Pop was, and at the time I’m writing this, still is an amazing individual. He aided in one of the US Coast Guard’s most famous rescues, The Bermuda Sky Queen crash in 1947. He was also the first captain of USCGC Morgantheau, with a crew of “Just Made It’s.”. The Morgantheau is still out in the waters and we shared a moment of silence with the current crew this afternoon.

Pop Pop would pick me up from school most days of the week and back before he ever bought a Saturn I’d run out of class and look for his little orange puddle jumper or on special days “The Hi-Ho” named for the mining song of the seven dwarfs he had a sun shield featuring.

Camping, going to the arcade and the movies, the swap shop, getting to loot a selection of ten year old comic books he probably got for a dime each. It didn’t matter, I was doing things with my pop pop and my pop pop was my buddy.

I’m really going to miss him when he’s gone but I won’t ever be sad. I can’t be sad with so many happy memories.

Update: What’s Been Going On…

Well, I made an announcement here that I’d soon be a father and I’m finding now that, sadly, I have to retract that statement.  It pains me to say it, but it is the truth and while I’ve come to grips with it, I couldn’t have done it without the kind words and support of everyone I call friends and my amazing family, as well.  Every dark cloud has a silver lining and if you let the clouds loom too long you’ll be so consumed by darkness that you’ll never see that silver lining.  So it’s good to see it early to know that what’s happened may actually be okay in the end.

That said, on to something a little more…bright.

Before I started this blog, I was the host of The Talk Nerdy Show, an unpopular podcast that I put on week after week after hiatus after week with a rotating cast like none have ever seen before.  Eventually the cast dwindled down to me and I lacked the furthered enthusiasm to continue on.  And I started this blog just after, and mounted Spread The Nerd, which needs some TLC again.

I got to thinking and there’s no reason I can’t do it on my own.   So, here’s what’s to come;

I think I can collect enough talking points to do a show THIS week.  It’ll be on Wednesday night.  I’ll do it live either on UStream, or some other free service.  I’ll mention talking points coming up and take breaks.  During breaks I’ll set up with the audience for anyone that wants to join the conversation a chance to call in via Skype.    I’m going to attempt to broaden the scope of the show as far as topics go.  With TNS I got lost in doing too many reviews and really fell short on doing anything humorous or information based.  One thing I won’t be doing any more is comic book reviews.  Just a Couple of Gs does that and they do it VERY well, well enough to dedicate one of two weekly shows to the topic alone.  I’m going to stick to the other facets of geek life.  At the moment, I’m not sure about a title.  I’m considering “Talking To Myself” but am looking for feedback on that, and the idea as a whole. So, for the time being we’ll call this “Ryan Macdonald’s Big Damn Untitled Geek Podcast!”

And while the blog has been on sort of a break, I hope introducing the opinions of friends and colleagues to my show will inspire me to expand on things talked about on the show.

Please, everyone reading this, comment and let me know what you think.

 

Checking In, Updating, Reminding, Reinvigorating, Promoting

Been a while since I talked on here about Spread The Nerd.  Currently, we’ve got two comics care packages out there.  One in South Florida, one in North Florida.  Both have done their job and should be on their way to their next stops soon.  There’s the current map below.

-Taking a break from hash tagging #spreadthenerd on twitter just to let others do it, just a week.  I search #spreadthenerd a few times daily and am happy to see others doing it consistently.  Some have even added it to the end of their Follow Friday tweets.  Someone else has adopted it as his own thing to promote his music video, and the TV series Chuck uses it to promote the upcoming season 5.  Oh well, I haven’t been sued yet.

– Happy to report that there is a steady stream of views to this blog since starting Spread The Nerd.  Granted it’s about 11 a day or so, and they’re all from searches for DCs New 52, sometimes title and character specific.  Regardless, views is views and I’ll get more of them after I review this week’s batch of new titles.

–Just a Couple of G’s just did a three hour episode where they reviewed 27 new titles.  That’s insane.  Head over to where the link is pointed and give them a listen, they’re spoiler heavy but they have a way about discussing titles that is pretty awesome it’s a lot more than just “I liked it, it was good, this is what happened.”  And they call artists and writers out on their BS if they need to.  Good times.

-Friends, fans, anyone: My girlfriend is running a Munchkin Demo/Launch Party to celebrate the release of Munchkin Axe Cop next month (Oct 22nd) at Heroes Landing in Clermont.  Come on out and chop some heads off.  Or, find me and we’ll break out the Doctor Who-infused Star Munchkin deck and give that a whirl.  Speaking of…

-I’d put my progress on the new Doctor Who deck at about 80% finished.  I’ve got about 24 or 25 cards completely done and my revisions to the previous deck are done too.  I’ll just need to print and stick those next.  I still have another 3 to find art for and another 5-7 to write.  I’ll get another Munchkin Custom Card Project Update up today or tonight with pictures, as that seemed to be quite popular.

-Last, but not least, if you head over to Geek World Order you’ll find in the blog section, not only, are my Issues here reposted, but I’m also writing exclusives for them as well.

Anyway, everyone, that’s all from me.  Keep checking in here, on facebook, and twitter.  Join the Spread The Nerd cause and introduce some geek into someone’s life.

Hugs for Maddy

Relentlessly cheerful artist, James Hance has worked up a new Wookie The Chew doodle to help pay for medical bills for his, also relentlessly cheerful, daughter Maddy.  If you head over to his website you can snag yourself a copy of the print shown above, appropriately, titled “Off to Save the Princess.”  All proceeds go towards his Hugs for Maddy fund.

While you’re there check out his other prints as well.  Word is he’s working on some really cool new Doctor Who themed stuff!

The Life and Times of the Socially Awkward #3: Speak Out With Your Geek Out

I know, the official week isn’t until next week, but if anyone’s got something to say about this it’s me.  Speak Out With Your Geek Out is a week set aside by those morally outraged by an article written by a certain Gizmodo writer, who’s since been, reportedly, fired, about her date with a Magic The Gathering World Champion.  He seemingly made no effort to make it the only topic of conversation, though she went out of her way to make it the quintessential deal breaker.  It was a display which falls beneath even the most scandalous of high school publications.

Speak Out with Your Geek Out is a week set aside to stand up and talk about something you’re passionate about and to be proud and to share that with others.  It’s about being positive about something and taking pride in what you do.  Having started my own effort to unite us as a subculture and community with Spread the Nerd, I can’t help but latch onto this and appreciate the @#!*% out of it.

I’ve spent my entire life like this.  As long as I can remember I’ve been a geek.  And I’ve suffered the hardships that came with the territory, especially when I was in school.  Saying this makes me feel old, but when I was in school we didn’t have the general acceptance of geekery that exists now.  Eventually I owned it, wore it like a gleaming red and yellow S, or G rather, on my chest.  And in doing that I solidified myself for life.

There’s a misconception about the community that I really hope to one day see wiped out, and it’s that we’re nothing more than a myopic group of hate mongers.  Granted, every group has a handful that are less desirable to deal with than others.  There’s nothing wrong with wanting the best for the things we put so much of ourselves and our lives into.  Call it nerd rage if you must, but until you’ve invested yourself into something like we invest ourselves, you may not really understand why we “rage” like we do.

Being a geek, for me, is more than having seen Star Wars more than once, it’s more than playing a card game once or twice, it’s more than watching a particular show.  Being a geek for me is being passionate about something, about all things.  And I don’t want to reserve those things exclusively for myself, no, I want to share my passion for all things geek with everyone.  My hobby isn’t any one geeky thing in particular, it’s all of the things!

My girlfriend and I have developed a ritual.  Every Saturday we get up a little bit earlier than we’d really like to, and drive about an hour to sit in our favorite comic shop and play board and card games with each other.  Anyone who comes into the store is more than welcome to join us, and we’ve even had people step up and sit in and inquire.  And everyone has left us having had a great time.  I’ve done everything I could want to do, spent time with my girlfriend, made new friends, and introduced them to new and exciting games they may not have given a second glance to if they’d not been invited to play.  Through this charge I get from spreading the culture of geek, I’ve developed a movement of my own.

Not unlike Speak Out with Your Geek Out my effort encourages the geek community to unite and to spread our culture by any means necessary.  And by any means necessary, I of course mean sending and giving comic books to random strangers.  Telling your sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews superhero origin stories before bed, introducing someone to the pop culture phenomenon that is Doctor Who.  I mean, really ANY means necessary and available to each and every person.  With it I hope to track the travels of a single package of comics, which is being sent to South Florida this week to begin it’s mission.

There’s nothing that I love more than being a geek right now.  And to pick one hobby to be passionate about is unfair to every hobby that came before and will come after it.  I’ve been a geek my entire life, and I never felt more fulfilled by it then when I began sharing it with other people.

Update: Spread the Nerd

Sorry there hasn’t been a real update in a while. A lot of what’s coming is all to do with Spread the Nerd. It has been embraced across the board and I’d be a fool to not stick with it. That said, issue #6 is in the works and will compile 101 ways to spread the nerd, if I can come up with so many.

Spread The Nerd — Follow Up

Yesterday was pretty awesome.  Retweets, reposts, support all around the Florida geek community and from others across the pond.  Spread The Nerd right now is an idea that needs to be passed on.  This is something I can’t facilitate on every level.  What I can do, is what I’m working on for this now.  A centralized location.  I’ll get a URL up here as soon as it’s registered, but what I hope to do is provide a location for those of you sending things out or giving things away to say that you have.  For now though, e-mail me at spreadthen3rd@gmail.com

Look, I can’t possibly get this out to everyone it needs to get out to on my own, so re-post the previous entry here in your blog.  Retweet the link. TREND #spreadthenerd.  Kick over trash cans and tell someone about it.  When the website is up we’re gonna get letterheads to download and print off and a logo to print out or post on your website.  Facebook pages to like the campaign.

This was, seriously, a fleeting idea I had and made a post about.  But over the course of the last 24 hours, you, my friends, have encouraged me to mobilize this thing and kick it into high gear.

Tell everyone!

After the break is detail of what to do if you’re going to take part.

The Life and Times of the Socially Awkward #2: Spread The Nerd

I’ve been wanting, for some time now, to take action in the industry I invest so much time into and do something active within it.  Being that my attempts at creating my own comic book are far from realized I can’t add to the industry.  But what I can do is bring awareness about it.  For starters, with digital comics becoming same day as release of the print version we’re, inevitably going to see a decrease in print sales.  That decrease in sales could eventually lead to driving local comic shops out of business and then what’ll we be left with?  Not a @#!*% thing.

I come to you with this, friends.  My Life as a Geek’s “Spread the Geek” project.  I propose that you scrounge your long boxes and book shelves for books that you haven’t looked at or even thought about in months.  Look for those titles that brought you back into the game when you weren’t sure you wanted to keep on going.  Buy a new graphic novel, for all I care.  The point is, put it in a box and send it to someone you know that doesn’t have the exposure to this stuff that you do, that you think might enjoy it.  Buy an extra copy of something and give it to some kid who’s walking in as you’re leaving.  The idea is to spread comics out across the nation, maybe even the world, who knows.  But I offer this task at the same time;  when you spread the word, request that the person you’re sharing with do the same.  If you’re sending out a comics care package, offer a keepsake of some kind.  Buy a print from your favorite artist (geek or otherwise).  And help them get some more recognition that you’ve always felt they so rightly deserve.  It’s one thing to say “I wish this got more recognition.”  It’s something completely different to give it that recognition.  So, when you’re sending your comics send a note that instructs the recipient to do the same, send or give the same books and the letter to someone else.

Issue 4: My Line of Work/Doctor Who

Some time ago I’d walked into a comic shop, the now defunct Bad Apple Comics in Leesburg, FL, and apparently “foolishly” asked what was good to jump into.  The answer I got was baffling, because it pretty much solidified the reason why I refer to them as “the now defunct.”  The clerk told me, in essence, that to read anything now would be hard to do as there were series upon series upon series of books to read first.  Luckily, some years later, I’d walk into Heroes Landing and hear a far wiser voice regarding the current state of what to read.  Regardless of that, upon hearing about the myriad of stories I’d need to be knowledgeable about to know whats going on at all I took it upon myself to sit down and flesh out a world where I could create stories that would be approachable from day one.  What came to life from that would be the epic and harrowing tale of a nameless ronin who’d live his life cast out of his family and the order which he swore devotion to.  He traveled the land with nothing but his sword and his guitar.

At the time of planning the books, this was the first and only incarnation of the hero from the, then, artist Kevin Woody

Issue 3: The Fuzzy, The Weirdos, And Me

Image courtesy of James Hance

Just this past week I revisited the Sesame Street movie Follow That Bird and it occurred to me how terrifying that movie actually is.  I mean you need to replace Big Bird with an actual six year old, but when you watch the movie you need to remember that Big Bird IS six years old and it’s referenced many many times.  And any kid watching should be terrified for Bird but I don’t think it registers for them the same way, it didn’t for me back then.  But you’ve got to think, at the very beginning of this movie Big Bird is ripped from everything he knows and loves and cares about, all of his friends and the people that look out for him and his best intentions and he’s thrust into a house by some caretaker who says he needs to be with his OWN kind and not fraternizing with others.  If that weren’t bad enough he runs away and hitch-hikes his way half way across America.  The moment that made me kind of go “How was this okay for kids?!” was when the carnies catch up to Bird, capture him, paint him blue, and force him to perform.  Who does that to a six year old?!

For all the scary bits, there’s great messages all along the way, one in particular coming in the form of a song from Waylon Jennings about how nothing is ever too big to be accomplished.

I guess what I want to talk about today is The Muppets.  Some time ago I discovered the art of a now good friend, James Hance.  His style was like nothing I’d ever seen and what he was doing by combining popular art with popular culture wasn’t only hilarious but it was amazing.  It reminded me that there exists a world of mostly wholesome characters out there that have brought me joy time after time after time.  From Fraggle Rock and Sesame Street when I was in diapers and could barely speak to Muppet Treasure Island in my younger days to finally sitting down and catching up on five seasons of The Muppet Show as it aired in pieces on the Disney Channel.  Somewhere after the flop of Muppets in Space and the cancellation of Muppets tonight I sort of forgot about Kermit, Fozzy, and the rest of the gang.  I forgot about Gobo, Boober, Red, Mookey, and Wembley Fraggle, I mean, I knew what they were and that I was an avid watcher when I’d sit in front of the television, but they just kind of went to the wayside.  When I discovered James’ art it was all brought back to screaming life and I couldn’t be happier about it.